


To The Future

by lavieenrawr



Category: IZONE (Band), K-pop, Produce 48 (TV)
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Business, Celebrities, Childhood Friends, Dancing, Developing Friendships, Dorms, F/F, Fix-It, Friendship, Gen, IZONE Permanent, Idols, K-pop Industry, Music, Musicians, Off the Record Entertainment, Off-screen Relationship(s), Post-Canon, Pre-Canon, Pre-Debut IZONE, Reality TV, Show Business, Singing, Single Parents, Slow Burn, Slow Romance, Supernatural Elements, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, ZOZI, longfic, mnet
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-11 07:33:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28347696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lavieenrawr/pseuds/lavieenrawr
Summary: A story about getting the chance to go back to a timeline where they could avoid ZOZI. Eleven years into the past. Having knowledge of the future, fate is inevitably changed.
Relationships: IZONE Ensemble/Everyone
Kudos: 7





	To The Future

**Author's Note:**

> This story had been sitting in my files since SSOTS era. After reading so many internet adventure novels set in the Korean celebrity industry, it inspired me to write my own. only that It's about IZ*ONE of course. If it wasn't obvious, it was born out of my desire for IZ*ONE's contract extension. 
> 
> This story is more about moving upwards within the industry while dodging disbandment – of course with a sprinkle of the supernatural with time travel. This longfic is mainly divided into three parts: Pre-debut, Produce 48, and Post Debut.
> 
> Disclaimer: I am not sponsored by any companies or brands appearing within this fanfiction. Likewise, the characters in this fanfic are just fictional and are based and inspired by real people. They do not reflect their actual personalities and lives, nor am I claiming them to be facts. With that out of the way, please enjoy!

A foreign, panicked voice rang into Song Jihye's ears amidst her slumber.

The girl just groaned, creased her eyebrows, and curled herself back into sleep. Being ignored, the voice started to get more desperate. The person then resorted to finally shaking her sleeping figure by the shoulder.

Jihye cracked her eyes open, annoyed from abruptly being woken up.

A girl was hovering over her body. Jihye squinted her eyes at the girl's face with much struggle.

With her poor eyesight, she can't make out the features of the girl at all. It was like looking through the viewfinder of an unfocused camera.

The foreign girl tried telling her something – Well, more like _demanded_. Eventually, she recognized the language as Japanese.

She didn't understand a word of Japanese.

Giving up from trying to decipher the Japanese girl's ramblings, she then decided to find her glasses first.

"It must be around here. Darn, I hate being blind as a bat," she spoke in a hoarse 'just-got-out-of-bed' voice, mostly to herself.

There was no use communicating with someone shielded with a language barrier.

"You're Korean?" the voice mumbled in Korean as if she just realized.

"...You know, you could have just spoken Korean from the start," Jihye arched an eyebrow.

"We are in Kagoshima. Isn't it just normal to assume everyone could speak Japanese?" the stranger mumbled in defense.

Jihye then frowned at the blurry figure. "...We are where?"

"Kagoshima," she repeated. "What, are you a lost backpacker?"

But the thing was, Jihye's dormitory was in the Seodaemun District in Seoul.

Definitely not Japan.

Slowly, Jihye backed away, feeling around for her phone as well, in addition to her lost glasses.

She wanted to call for the Mental Health Services or maybe even the cops to take this person.

She didn't even want to think about how the Japanese girl got through the dorm security. Or how she even managed to move her somewhere else without waking her.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" the Japanese girl asked, frowning at Jihye.

"Stay right there. Don't come an inch closer. I do karate."

She did not.

"Why are you scrambling away?! Yah!" the girl called her.

"I'm not scared of you one bit, don't get me wrong," Jihye said, still moving backward. "My glasses are just somewhere here."

In her head, she was already devising at least seven ways she could escape from the lunatic who insisted they were in Japan.

"Your glasses are over here though?"

Jihye perked up. "Oh, uh. Really?"

Just as she was about to get further, the unclear figure quickly closed their distance with her. "There!" the stranger hastily pinned her on the floor to keep her from getting away.

"Wait! I don't have anything valuable on me!" Jihye squeezed her eyes shut, shrinking back. "My organs are just so-so, I think. Not worth anything."

"Can you just! Stay still for a second!" the girl had to wrestle to keep her in place.

Soon, she felt a slightly cold sensation of a thin pair of glasses plop on the bridge of her nose crookedly. Slowly, she opened her eyes to meet the frustrated gaze of the girl.

Cat-like full eyes and a high nose. She had foreign Asian features. Jihye then blinked in surprise when she finally recognized the face.

"Ms... Miyawaki? You're Ms. Miyawaki Sakura, right?"

Relief coursed out through her system. The fact that the person wasn't a lunatic who's out the sell her organs was definitely a plus.

Sakura, seeing a leather wallet sticking out from Jihye's jacket pocket, pulled it out before getting off her.

Jihye raised an eyebrow at her. "You know, when I told you I have nothing valuable, I meant it," she said, sitting up properly. "That's not even close to one percent of your salary."

Sakura ignored her and emptied the wallet's contents one by one – Korean won bills, a National I.D. card, an ATM, her transportation card, and a Yonsei University Campus Pass.

"You're roaming around here without a single Yen?" Sakura raised an eyebrow.

"Last time I checked, I was in Seoul," Jihye said. "Plus, I honestly thought you were crazy."

"I was in my parents' house for the Golden Week," Sakura frowned. "I haven't set foot in Korea for almost two years."

Sakura didn't seem like she was lying.

She was barefooted, obviously not here of her own will. She also had wacky shorts reaching just above her knee. Her loose shirt was definitely not for outdoor cruising.

"Song Jihye..." Sakura squinted her eyes at the National I.D. card that had her name and birthday. "You're almost three years younger than me, so can I talk informally?"

"Pretty sure you've been talking informally for a few minutes now. But sure," Jihye said with an amused smile as she relaxed on the cloud-like floor.

At this point, she wasn't sure if anything was real anymore, so she just decided to roll with things. With fear no longer in her system, she loosened up considerably.

"You're not _that_ Song Jihye, right?" Sakura asked, peeking at the girl as if comparing her with her I.D. "Mr. Song Baekyoung's little princess?"

"Hold up. Who are you calling 'little princess'?" Jihye frowned at the disturbing nickname. "But yes, he's my dad."

Sakura's eyes widened. "So it's really you? I thought you'd be as soft as your father talked about you."

"How exactly did that old man talk about me...?"

"He always talks about you fondly. Everyone in Team Eleven, IZ*ONE's production department, calls you little princess," Sakura said. "Not a day would pass without him mentioning you."

"He doted on me behind my back like that? Never would have thought."

More than anything, he would pull Jihye out for a run on early mornings growing up and steal the remote whenever they'd watch TV at home.

He would even dump green peas on her plate just because he didn't like it. Hardly a little princess treatment if you ask her.

"I've always wanted to thank Mr. Song," Sakura smiled fondly. "Being away from our families most of the time, he was kind of like a parent to us."

"For sure. Sometimes, I even question who's the actual daughter," Jihye chuckled. "He would ramble on about IZ*ONE's achievements nonstop over the phone."

Jihye swept her eyes around her surroundings. Bizarre pinkish-orange skies surrounded them as they sat on the clouds. No matter where she looked, endless floors of clouds were in their sight. 

"Still. This place is strange," Jihye said, threading her hands through the humid floor beneath her. "Are these clouds?"

"Looks like it. I don't know why we're not falling through though," Sakura said, eyes just as curious as hers. "This doesn't feel like a dream either."

Jihye then heaved a small sigh out of her lips, ruffling her own hair in frustration. She decided to see if they could find some clues in their surroundings beside the clouds and the pink skies.

"Let's try finding something," Jihye suggested. "The place is endless. So let's pick a direction and walk."

Jihye stood up, holding out a hand to Sakura to help her up.

Sakura then took Jihye's outstretched hand and used it as leverage to get herself off the cloud ground. "Which way?"

A lopsided smile made its way on Jihye's lips. "My instincts say... Over there," she said, briskly walking towards a direction that neither of them really knew where it would take them.

Jihye felt strange as they walked. The ground wasn't quite solid, making her steps feel as if she was walking on nothing. Her bare feet felt like humidifiers surrounded them at every step she took. The experience felt surreal.

"Do you even have a basis on where we're going?" Sakura asked. No matter how far they went, there was no difference within sight.

"Um. My feeling?" she offered vaguely. Frankly, she was relying on gut instinct. "I mean. Let's just hope we get somewhere. It's the only thing we could do," she quickly added. 

"But what if we're actually going around in circles and we don't know it?"

Jihye's breath hitched. It was possible. "That's..."

"Don't worry. You're actually getting somewhere. I'd give it five more hours," a slick voice of an older man made the both of them almost jump.

Jihye quickly looked behind them and found a Western man in his 30's clad in a full white suit. Outwardly, he had a chiseled face of a Western man. However, he spoke Korean like a native.

There was not a trace of any other color than white found anywhere on his apparel. "Wow. Is that some new fashion trend I'm not aware of? Even the buckle of your belt is white," Jihye mused.

Sakura elbowed Jihye with a scolding gaze, "Yah. Don't be rude."

"It's fashion commentary," Jihye shrugged. "This guy. He might even be our hypothetical kidnapper," she said with an accusatory gaze. "Are you?"

The man, who was just watching as if he was in front of a TV a while ago, let out a hearty laugh. One that sounded like it came from the depths of his abdomen. "You really have a thin mind-to-mouth filter, Ms. Song. However, calling it 'kidnapping' hurts my heart, you know?"

"So you're behind this," Sakura gasped, glaring at the man.

"Woah. Ms. Miyawaki, your glares are as intimidating as ever," he said. Despite his words, he didn't look even a bit scared.

"And you know our names because?" Jihye arched an eyebrow at the elegant man, waiting for an answer.

"Because I know everything. It's part of the occupation description," the man said, snapping his thick fingers.

Suddenly, three velvet sofas appeared out of thin air—two parallel to each other, facing the other lone chair where the man sat comfortably in.

After getting over their surprise at the sudden appearance of the three huge chairs in the middle of nowhere, Jihye opened her mouth. "That's a dope magic trick," she blurted.

There was no way that just happened without theatrics behind it. With technology in 2023, nothing seemed to be too impossible to accomplish anymore.

The man chuckled. "I see that you don't believe in magic. Please do take a seat. We have important matters to discuss," he then relaxed into his seat, conjuring up a cup of tea. "Do you two want some?"

"I don't trust you, so no," Sakura blatantly rejected him, cautiously sitting on one of the huge armchairs.

Jihye instantly sat on the last armchair. Like her body was swallowed by a huge marshmallow, her body relaxed as she sank into the softness. It was like all the fatigue built up in her body from the long walk evaporated into thin air.

"I should really get one of these at home," Jihye said, satisfied by the quality of the chair.

The sofas in IKEA could never match up to it. It was what she would classify as a 'paradise-tier' item. That was a tier she only ever gave to a select few items throughout her life.

"I'm afraid chairs in the human realm are nothing compared to these," the man said mysteriously, inciting confused looks from both Sakura and Jihye.

"In the human realm?" Sakura asked first, frowning. "Are you saying we're not in the world anymore? Are we dead?"

"Ah," Jihye lightly tapped her fist on her palm like a lightbulb just lit in her head, "Now it makes sense how we came from different countries yet got to meet like this."

"That's right. Your physical bodies are very far from each other. However, rest assured. You're both alive and well," the man said calmly, his right leg over his knee. "I'm the Negotiator, by the way, a resident of a sort in heaven."

"An angel?" Jihye asked. "You're not quite the image when I imagined angels."

For starters, Jihye had an image of a light-haired individual with huge wings and a bright smile. The angel would be holding some sort of brass instrument like a harp or a trumpet as he or she welcomed them through the gates of heaven.

"Nah, an angel is too high of a being to describe my humble self. I was once human too, you know? I died in the Middle Ages," he explained briefly. "But I _am_ working for the angels."

"So are we just going to believe what he's saying?" Sakura asked dubiously, turning her head to Jihye for her opinion.

Jihye shrugged. "I mean... it's the only plausible explanation for this phenomenon," she said, looking around once more. "This is heaven, right? Where are the golden gates? The trumpet band?"

"We're just on the outskirts of heaven," he explained, taking a sip of tea. "As to why you're both here," he caressed his goatee, a bright smile across his face. "You both won the right to a time reset. Congratulations!"

"Time reset?" the two of them asked in unison, their words coated in disbelief,

"2023 is a Heaven Summation year. The last one was back in 2014 and 2005. It's when the numbers add up to seven, the Lord's number," the Negotiator explained with a beam, clasping his fingers together. 

"That's so random," Sakura frowned.

"You both wished hard today. Seventh of July, 2023. So now you're given this chance."

"We... wished hard?" Jihye asked, growing increasingly confused by every word going out of the man's mouth. At this point, she could even classify it as gibberish.

" **If only I could turn back time**... You both said something along those lines," the Negotiator said, quoting their words. "So, therefore, a time reset."

"But I'm sure millions of people thought that today alone," Sakura frowned. Millions of people in the world had regrets. It didn't make sense why only the two of them were up here.

"The time reset is granted when the person wishes exactly twelve midnight of July 07, 2023, in their standard time. Since South Korea and Japan are in the same time zone and you two are the only ones who wished during that time, here you are."

The two of them still didn't look convinced as they looked up at the man dubiously. It sounded too farfetched to be real.

"...If you don't believe me, I could reiterate your exact desires," a calm smile graced his face before looking first at Sakura. He then opened his mouth, "Miyawaki Sakura, you're very popular these days, no? The return of the Captain of Team KIV."

"I... Yeah, thanks," she said, looking a bit uncomfortable with what he has to say next.

"You look guilty," he observed absentmindedly as he looked at her demeanor, sipping on some tea. "Is it because you wanted to continue working with IZ*ONE?"

In that sentence, Sakura's eyes suddenly found the clouds down below interesting. "That's..."

"You don't have to feel guilty. You get connected, you formed a strong bond, it happens," he told her. "But what you don't like is how some of the other girls didn't end up as favorably as you did."

A flash of hurt crossed Sakura's features when she heard his words, her jaw clenched. A tension formed in the air so thick you could cut it in half.

After the disbandment, some of the members continued to the path of stardom. Some opted to quit and went back to school as regular citizens of society.

Some failed and just disappeared off the grid.

Sakura then shook her head, putting on a strong face as she faced the Negotiator. "You said I could go back in time?"

"I did say that, yes," the Negotiator nodded, a smile on his face. "It seems one of you is now on board with this idea?"

Sakura looked like she was all for it. However, Jihye was still ambivalent about the whole thing. After all, it might have been made up, and the man was just screwing around.

"And now, Song Jihye."

When her name was called out by the Negotiator, a lump formed in her throat. With how precise he had been about Sakura's motivation, he must really know their desires.

"With your carefree facade since you arrived, it wasn't obvious that you had been crying yourself to sleep hours ago. You hide it so well that even I'm impressed."

Jihye flinched for a second, looking disturbed. However, she only let her facade crack for a split second before reverting to her breezy state.

"Come on now, who wouldn't cry with the amount of paperwork they give you in college? And here I thought making music would be the sole focus of a music major."

"A talented student like you wouldn't shed tears over measly paperwork."

"I'm flattered. But you're heavily underestimating college," Jihye said with a lopsided smile, not wanting to back down.

She hated showing vulnerability, especially to people she just met.

"It was on the news. Your father's treasured studio was demolished recently. Loan sharks can be quite harsh these days."

Sakura gasped. "Is that true?"

"Ah, it seemed like he didn't let you guys know he got laid off because he tried to expose the dirty deeds Stone Music to the public?"

Jihye's expression started to dim as the man spoke, the memories of last night rushing back in her head.

She was called into the hospital. When the loan sharks came to collect money from her father, and he had nothing to give.

They opted to destroy the collateral for the loan right there – the studio he worked hard to build for years. 

Not wanting to go down without a fight, her father tried protecting the building, only to get beaten up and knocked down by several men with the loan sharks.

"Instead, you focused on getting into a high-end university, not knowing that he took out a huge loan to make a show of paying your college fees as he promised." 

Jihye bit her bottom lip. She didn't know about everything until tonight. The Negotiator was spot on.

"You won yourself another participant. You're good at this," Jihye finally said, her voice slightly cracking. "I'm a good-for-nothing daughter who selfishly went for her dreams and didn't bother supporting her father's dream."

The Negotiator then conjured a small table between the three sofas. On top were all sorts of silver accessories, all having the same small hourglass pendant.

"Pick any. Those are to prevent you from losing all your memories and experiences as I send you back in time," he told the.

Jihye leaned over to pick something from the table, settling for the nearest necklace. Sakura opted for another simple choice, a bracelet.

"Well then, shall we? Better send you back before sunrise, or you'd wake up," he grinned before clapping his hands twice, not bothering to hear more from the two girls.

A flash of bright light devoured Jihye and Sakura.

✦-✦-✦

"Shit!" Jihye cursed as the soft armchair then disappeared from under her. She braced herself to have her butt hit the ground in no time.

However, to her surprise, she was unexpectedly caught by something—a small, wooden chair.

In the blink of an eye, the scenery drastically changed. Sakura and the Negotiator were nowhere in her sight. 

Instead, before Jihye were children, collectively looking at her with eyes as wide as saucers.

As she was about to ask them what the hell they were all looking at, a boy spoke. "Miss! She said a bad word!" he said in his squeaky kid voice.

A young woman, around Jihye's age, faced her direction. 

"Jihye, dear, please come up here in front," she frowned, planting her hands on her hips. "I'm having a word with you about saying bad words."

Still confused, Jihye then caught a glance at the calendar next to the chalkboard. The year right in the middle of the colorful calendar made her jaw drop. 

A picture of a clown with **March 2012** written across its party hat looked like it was mocking her for her mistake. She was a sixth-grader.

"Please come here and face the wall. Reflect on your actions and write it in your notebook during lunch before I permit you to go out."

Jihye made a mental note to knee the Negotiator next time she sees him for throwing her this far back in time and not warning her about it. 

Sighing, she found a spot on the wall near the teacher as she reflected on what her next step would be.


End file.
